INTENTIONAL?

04.07.10

Six-Year-Old’s Death Ruled a Suicide

Though the death of a 6-year-old girl in Oregon was ruled a suicide by a state medical examiner, questions remain around her actual intent. After Samantha Kuberski, a first-grader, was sent to her room following a disagreement with her mother in December, she tied a belt onto a bar of an unused crib and hanged herself. But police are still not sure that the girl realized she was taking her own life. "The disagreement is a little more philosophical than it is material to the case," McMinnville police Capt. Dennis Marks said. "It's not that we disagree with the mechanics of what happened. It's the finding that a 6-year-old could form that kind of intent." The medical examiners maintain that interviews with the family show the girl knew the dangers of putting a belt around her neck and that she had made statements indicating she would kill herself.